Undead Lily gameplay ?

[jack1974]

For this game I wanted to try something different from the usual gameplay, but I'm wondering if is the right move or not. It's obviously safer to go on with established gameplay systems, but sometimes I like to experiment. However, since I also invested a lot of money on this game, I wouldn't like to waste it
My idea was:
- have a SIMPLE RPG element. Not complex as Loren or even Planet Stronghold
- have a headquarters where each hero has his/her own room, and you can buy improvements, and research new battle moves or train your heroes
- have a strategic map similar to a chessboard, with some special points (who remembers the old game Archon for C64?). The map would show where the two HQ are, but you can't simply attack the enemy HQ, you have to hold several special spots for XX turns, or other way to win
- the battles. This is probably the most risking gameplay element. I mean all of the above should look COOL right? but here comes the thing: I wanted to have tag-team battles, where you fight 1 vs 1 but you can swap your active hero with 2 "reserves". The battle would work in a very similar way as Kongai

now the easiest solution to play "safe" would be to have the battles in a similar way as Planet Stronghold (even if this would mean to do extra graphic for new enemies). I could still reuse the battle pose and have a sort of Final Fantasy battle with a side view, which could still be nice to see.

Any thoughts / suggestions are welcome

[pysali]

So I was stumped on how to give feedback to this and asked my husband his opinion:

I think the Archon system is pretty cool, obviously though we'd need some clarification on how capture points would work. I would love if his last point if he uses a marvel vs capcom 3 flare and the reserves can have a special ability while they're in reserve. That way you could have a healer or aoe ability in reserve and you can select/call on them to help with the fight or even swap out with them. And that way you can have more tactical consideration in your party selection.

Mostly for me I'm wondering about capturing as well. Would that mean one of your teammates would need to stay on the board or will there be special NPC's that both sides can place in a strategic point to hold it while the heroes and villains go back to HQ and rest/skill up/train and check the map to see if the opposing side is mounting an offensive. Ultimately though I'd hate for you to have to purchase even more art at this point since you have so much of it already and the Kongai visual system sounds interesting (I'm familiar with it, even though I suck at that game). I'd like to get to see the dramatic posed fight between the characters if it's possible to still retain it. Reminds me of old school fighting games.

[jack1974]

Yes it would work as you say, with characters in reserve being able to help the fight. As for capturing you'd have to stay on a place for some turns, but you can also build some structures/outpost on the map. For the battle another option I thought about was to have "minions" for each element, and they would fight in the game like Sword & Soldiers or (gah another flash game I forgot the name!!).
I think the crucial point are the battles since the map Archon style I'm sure will be cool to play. I guess the only way will be to make a test battle and see if is fun or not to play

[Moussey]

Your idea reminds me a lot of Advance Wars. There's a lot of elements that Archon and AW have in common, like capture points, HQs, and units with different abilities.

To tie it to your game, I'm thinking that it would have two parts for the battle sequence. It would start off with an overhead map with your characters, important places, items, and enemies represented by miniatures, just like an old school 2d rpg. In this mode, both the hero side and the enemy side would take turns moving around, discovering/capturing points, attacking HQs, finding treasure, etc. For combat sequence, it'll switch to a 1 vs 1 battle where it can be one of two things: an automated battle where stats, equips, items, and luck determine the outcome, or a FF like turn based battle.

Also, it'll be really fun to play around with including the actual world map into the 1 vs 1 battles. Certain environmental tiles (ex: mountains, cities) can give defensive bonuses over others (ex: a plain) and some can give offensive bonuses over other as well (underwater vs. mid air vs. jungle vs. invisibility). You could also use these to incorporate strengths and weaknesses to your characters, since many of your characters are elementals.

[jack1974]

Yes somehow similar to Advance Wars though I don't want to have a scrolling map, that's why I said Archon. Also, the player will have the possibility to change the terrain type. In practice each terrain will be one of the 6 elements - so it won't be earth-like (after all we're in a sort of alternate dimension, the Limbo). Obviously if you use the character with associated element, he/she will be stronger: Aquaria in water, Superfoxy in Air, Undead Lily in Death, etc. If they're on the opposite element they'll be weaker:
Death <-> Life
Air <-> Water
Nature/Earth <-> Fire
so Alpha on the "graveyard node" (the Death one) will suffer severe penalties. I think already those element would make the map and the battles interesting. The only doubt I have is about the 1 vs 1 with tag team possibility battles, though in Kongai they're fun to play, so maybe is not a big deal.